Paris attacker charged with 'attempted terrorist killings'

A man who tried to launch an attack at several people in Paris last week has been charged with"attempted murder with relation to a terrorist enterprise".

The 25-year-old man, identified asZaheer Hassan Mehmood, wounded two people with a meatcleaver last Friday in Paris.

He has also been charged for lying to the court about his identity. He claimed to be an 18-year-old Pakistani man, Hassan A., from the town ofMandi Bahauddin. However, he finally revealed his real identity and admitted to entering France in 2018 under false identity of being a minor to get access tosocial security aid for minors, as reported bynational anti-terror prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard.

The truth was revealed after the authorities found a document on his phone claiming his real name to beZaheer Hassan Mehmood. "He eventually admitted that this was his true identity and that he was 25 years old," Ricard said.

He has been caught on tape admitting that he is launching an attack to take revenge for the caricatures ofProphet Mohammed by the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

Mehmood is also being kept underjudicial investigation for criminal association with terrorists, the prosecuting authority PNAT said on Wednesday.

The prosecutors have also urged the court to allow Mehmood to be remanded in custody, which is now possible since his real age has been revelaed.